Austin FC Earns Draw in Inaugural Match
June 19, 2021
The atmosphere was electric, the stadium was glowing, and the fans were energized. It was a historic night as the Austin FC played its inaugural home match at Q2 Stadium before capacity crowd of 20,738 very loud fans.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to bring the offense, again. The match against the San Jose Earthquakes ended in a 0-0 draw.
The Verde & Black haven’t won a match since playing Minnesota on May 1st and have earned draws in their last three. The team has only scored six goals in the eight games played this season, and half of those goals came in a single match in April.
Thank your lucky stars for the defense and goalkeeper Brad Stuver.
Stuver earned his third clean sheet of the season, successfully facing 13 shots, 9 on-target. Stuver came up big in the 83rd minute when he made a diving stop on San Jose midfielder Carlos Fierro. Stuver made another big stop in the 89th minute, this time on midfielder Cristian Espinoza. He then made a sprawling stop to deny defender Oswaldo Alanís on the ensuing corner kick.
Austin’s attack looked desperate, with 20 total shots but only 6 on-target. The best attempt in the 51st minute when Tomas Pochettino found forward Cecilio Domínguez in front of the net, but was stopped by San Jose goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski.
Commenting on the atmosphere, Midfielder Diego Fagundez shared, “to be honest, it was amazing. I remember when I stepped out right before the game started, I got the chills. It was something special.”
“We had a difficult game, a difficult opponent,” commented head coach Josh Wolff. ”We found our moments and weren’t able to capture a goal. A little bit more quality, a little bit better decision-making in the final third and I think the result’s there.”